SEA AKGLING IN GEEAT BEITAIN 



library of the British Museum, we find that there are literally- 

 thousands of similar books of varying degrees of value, but nearly 

 all foUowing out the altogether delightful pace set by Izaak Wal- 

 ton in giving the details of the sport in extenso. 



After reading one of these books I turn to my simple fishing^ 

 bag or box, and wonder at its simplicity, its utter lack of colour 

 and imaginative values, and am filled with regret. I find no 

 ' bobs,' no ' snuggling tackle,' no appliances for ' clod fishing,' no 

 ' paternosters,' no ' gorge hooks,' no ' legering ' no ' paste,' and a 

 thousand and one delightful things which are the objects of 

 vital importance in the kit of the British sea angler. 



Instead, I have two lines, a# 9 for fish of fifty pounds and under^ 

 a # 21 for the giants, a nine-ounce rod for the smaller fry, a sixteen- 

 ounce rod for the tuna, etc., a few O'Shaughnessey hooks, with 

 long or short piano wire leaders, possibly of two sizes, a sinker 

 of two different sorts, a small and large reel, and that is all. In 

 a word, the average American angler has not the fund of detail 

 found in the British sea angler, and ' John Bickerdyke,' Mr. 

 Minchin, or Mr. Aflalo, would, possibly, find it a difficult matter 

 to write a book on American anghng and devote much space to 

 tackle. Ifot that some Americans do not use many kinds, but 

 the great majority do not, and here it seems to me that we have 

 lost some of the esthetic charm of angling. I can explain perhaps 

 by observing that America is yet young, lacks homogeneity in its 

 sports. We have thousands of Greeks, Portuguese, Swedes^ 

 Norwegians, Italians in our great ports, particularly in the south 

 and on the Pacific coast, introducing their boats and methods, 

 fishing as they did in their own country. 



Again England has bmlt up her anghng literature and methods 

 through a thousand years of practice. It reminds me of my first 

 impression of English towns and cities — they were finished and 

 had accomphshed their end. So to an American particxdarly, 

 the detail of the British angler, the literature of the art of anghng, 

 the thousands of books on aU its phases, are dehghts, pure and 

 simple, whether it is the book of Juliana Berners, or the Miseries 



55 



